The development of resistance to multiple chemotherapeutic drugs frequently occurs during the treatment of cancer. Two transmembrane xenobiotic transporter proteins, P-glycoprotein (Pgp) and the multidrug resistance protein (MRP) are capable of causing multidrug resistance when transfected into drug-sensitive cells in culture (1,2). Despite this, the role that these transporters play in clinical drug resistance exhibited by human cancers is unclear, and alternate or additional drug resistance mechanisms operative in this disease have been sought.
To address this problem, Chen et. al. (3) selected human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells for resistance to the anthracycline doxorubicin in the presence of verapamil, an inhibitor of Pgp. The resultant multidrug resistant subline, MCF-7/AdrVp, exhibits marked cross-resistance to other anthracyclines (daunorubicin [DNR], 3′-deamino-3′[3-cyano-4-morpholinyl]doxorubicin, but not idarubicin), and to the anthracenedione mitoxantrone, but remains sensitive to vinca alkaloids, paclitaxel (3,4) and cisplatin. MCF-7/AdrVp cells do not overexpress Pgp or MRP, despite displaying a marked reduction in the intracellular accumulation of the anthracycline daunorubicin and the fluorescent dye rhodamine 123 compared to MCF-7 cells (4,5). MCF-7/AdrVp cells do not display an alteration in the subcellular distribution of drug (4) such as that seen in certain cells that overexpress MRP. Although the decreased accumulation of daunorubicin in MCF-7/AdrVp cells is not reversed by the classical P-glycoprotein antagonist cyclosporin A, depletion of ATP results in complete abrogation of the abnormal efflux of both daunorubicin and rhodamine (4).
The need in the art to elucidate the mechanism of drug resistance is continually present, as chemotherapy remains the primary method for non-invasively treating many types of cancers. There is also a need in the art to counteract the mechanism of drug resistance so to provide a longer and more effective course of chemotherapeutic drug treatment for cancer patients.